


pomegranate juice

by stupidqpid



Series: moon over bourbon street [3]
Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood, M/M, Pre-Relationship, also some possible food and related disorders tw? very very brief, my fingers slipped and there are angsty bits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:54:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23231275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stupidqpid/pseuds/stupidqpid
Summary: Wooyoung approaches his neighbor with the oldest excuse in the book but gets more than he bargained for.Or: Wooyoung interrupts Mingi's feeding and innocently invites him to dinner.
Relationships: Jung Wooyoung & Song Mingi, Jung Wooyoung/Song Mingi
Series: moon over bourbon street [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1659388
Comments: 4
Kudos: 56





	pomegranate juice

_Beep beep beep._

The microwave snaps Mingi out of his half asleep stupor. He lost count of how many blood bags exploded, fused or burned during his first attempts at “cooking” (air quotes and all) when he was a wee vampire, not to mention the ruined microwaves and the horrid smell that filled the kitchen each time, but he has become a pro at warming them up even while not completely conscious.

Once he’s settled down for a lazy Sunday—or what’s left of it—on the couch and pierced the bag with his elongated canines, Mingi starts flipping mechanically through TV channels, only stopping for music videos or home shopping channels. While he’s raptly observing some miraculous device that cuts vegetables and fruits better than all its predecessors, the doorbell rings.

Mingi chokes on the blood. Even after all these years, he always panics when he’s caught by surprise while he’s feeding. Before heading to the front door, the vampire throws the bag in a cabinet and quickly checks himself in the mirror hanging in the hallway, making sure his canines have retracted and there isn’t any gory leftover on his lips. This time he opens the door fully, unafraid of the sunlight at this time of the day.

To his surprise, a black haired Wooyoung is standing by his doormat, an empty green mug in his hands.

“Hi! Sorry for not texting first and just showing up, how are you?” his neighbor greets, his beautiful smile ever present.

“Hey! Don't worry about it, come on in,” Mingi invites him inside, unable to stop his own smile from broadening in front of the human “So what’s up?”

He unconsciously raises his free hand to scratch his tum in a nervous gesture, not realizing he bared a strip of his skin in the process; he _does_ notice Wooyoung’s efforts to not look down at the loose sweatpants he’s wearing low on his hips, though.

Wooyoung is _thisclose_ to slap himself to get a grip. Eventually, he exclaims, “I’m hungry! I am--well, _was_ cooking dinner, until I found out I didn’t have any sugar for the tteokbokki. I would’ve made something else, but I’ve already added most ingredients and the rice cakes are boiling, so you’re my only chance to not screw the dish up~”

Mingi briefly wonders if the shorter guy is part vampire and doesn’t need to breathe. He’s snapped out of his wacky theories when the mug is nearly shoved in his chest, held by Wooyoung with both hands in a begging pose.

There’s a little hitch in Wooyoung’s plan to approach his neighbor with the oldest excuse in the book, and he happens to really need the sugar: Mingi’s pantry has more cobwebs than food. The vampire doesn’t remember when was the last time he stocked up on non-perishable food and drinks to keep up the pretense for the occasional human guest, like Yunho advised him to. Flustered, Mingi looks back and forth between Wooyoung, the mug and his own virtually empty kitchen.

“I-I’m not sure I have any, I don’t use it much...” he stutters. Witnessing Wooyoung trying not to show his disappointment makes Mingi scramble for anything to make him happy again. “I’ll look for it! Don’t stand there, make yourself comfortable.”

Wooyoung’s lips settle for a tentative smile as follows the taller man to the couch, placed in front of a TV that’s currently showing a 264 in 1 super mixer, and takes a seat.

“I’m really sorry for bothering you. I should also go back to my kitchen soon: I wasn't irresponsible enough to leave the stove on, but I still rather the rice cakes not get too soggy…”

Mingi hears the polite urgency for a definitive answer about the existence of sugar in his pantry loud and clear, so he doubles his efforts. He doesn’t notice, however, that the blood bag he chucked in one of the cabinets slipped after his rummaging, from the punctured side no less, thus squirting in his face when he closes the door with a bit more strength than necessary.

“FUCK!”

Wooyoung startles and turns to look at Mingi, only to feel the color drain from his face at the sight.

“ **OH MY GOD!!!** ”

He jumps up and quickly crowds the taller, hands hovering as he hesitates to check for injuries, waiting for Mingi’s permission to touch him. He doesn't register the crashing sound of his mug hitting the ground.

“I’m alright, I’m alright,” Mingi reassures him, gently keeping Wooyoung away without dirtying him with one hand and sneakily pushing the blood bag back inside with the other, “It was just...uh...pomegranate juice! Yes, juice…”

Wooyoung, still breathing heavily for the shock of seeing his neighbor’s face all bloody, looks at him bewildered.

“Pomegranate juice? But it looks a bit too dark and thick--”

“It expired.”

They’re at a standoff, with Wooyoung still looking worried (and guilty, if Mingi really got hurt) while Mingi prays for Wooyoung to buy yet another lie. Eventually, from the corner of the eye they both spot the box of sugar that Mingi managed to retrieve before the blood shower; he hands it to Wooyoung and walks to the bathroom.

“Take how much you need,” he offers with what’s supposed to be an encouraging smile, but the ~~blood~~ _juice_ dribbled even into his mouth, reddening his teeth. The vampire turns before his canines fully come out, as they always do whenever ~~juice~~ _blood_ is involved.

Wooyoung doesn't move. He stands still as he stares at Mingi's retreating figure, debating whether to follow him or not. Ultimately he decides to trust him and to busy himself filling his mug, only to discover he didn't have it with him. Retracing his steps back to the couch, he finds the broken mug.

“Fucking A,” he mutters. Resigned, Wooyoung picks up the shards and carries them to the kitchen counter, but to add yet another misfortune to an evening to forget he accidentally nicks a finger. “Ow!”

Mingi has just finished washing most of the blood off when he staggers as he exits the bathroom. Thankfully his neighbor is facing the other way, so Mingi doesn’t have to add another bullet point or two to the list of things he made the poor human worry about this evening alone.

Inebriated by the smell of Wooyoung’s fresh blood, Mingi can feel his canines spring out with full force, pricking his own full bottom lip. Since he was found as a newly turned vampire, ignorant of his own status as such and with troubles keeping food down, he has never had the chance to feed from a living person and was rather weaned on blood bags from the get go. He would ask Hongjoong, aka the only human he knows who in turns knows about and is okay with vampires, but probably because the shorter is in a relationship with Yunho, feeding feels like an almost intimate act and Mingi doesn’t want to intrude.

Trying to keep his composure, Mingi returns to the kitchen. He has no choice but to cover his mouth with the damp towel he’s carrying before addressing Wooyoung.

“Is something wrong?”

Wooyoung turns and tiredly shows him what’s left of his mug; the vampire pointedly ignores the scarlet smudges on the ceramic. After surreptitiously recomposing himself, Mingi chuckles reassuringly.

“You can take the box, if you want, or I can lend you a glass or something,” he offers, heading for the drying rack.

“And risk breaking that too? The box is probably better.” Wooyoung grabs the sugar. “Thank you very much, Mingi, and sorry for ruining your evening…”

“Don’t mention it! Use as much as you need and make a kickass dinner to lift your spirits up!”

Wooyoung can’t help but grin back, Mingi’s words already lifting the weight in his stomach only to replace it with fluttering butterflies. A lightbulb goes off in his head.

“Would you like to come over? I can cook to repay you for your help!”

Not only does Mingi’s kitchen have cobwebs but his stomach too. Ever since turning into a vampire, all his internal organs except for his brain stopped working, but for whatever ancient reason blood and the occasional soda are the only things that don’t make his stomach hurt. Damn, does he miss real food: his mom and grandmas’ homemade dishes, BBQ, quick ramyeon, fastfood, ...

“Uh…”

  
  


An hour later, Mingi is hugging his toilet, flushing the tar-like substance filling the bowl at regular intervals to avoid clogging the pipes.

Hopefully his reactions to Wooyoung’s expectant gaze were believable, because unfortunately he couldn’t taste much of the tteokbokki—not the cook’s fault! Apparently it was at least edible, not too salty or too sweet, because the human didn’t appear disgusted by his own cooking either. More importantly, Mingi hopes his face didn’t betray his own discomfort from eating human food, that could’ve been easily confused with revulsion for Wooyoung’s dish and broken his ~~crush’s~~ kind neighbor’s heart.

Yet another hang up for the vampire and his desire to pursue the human. Mingi has seen that a relationship could be possible, thanks to his friends, and he’s not completely blind to the mutual interest between himself and Wooyoung, but something scares him. 

He heaves again.


End file.
